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Saturday, February 8, 2014

MOVIE REVIEW The Monuments Men
 Losing A Movie While Trying To Recover Art

George Clooney and Hugh Bonneville in Mr. Clooney's film "The Monuments Men".  Sony Pictures
       
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Saturday, February 8, 2014
A band of engineers, teachers and artists became soldiers during World War II under President FDR's directive, to rescue stolen art in Nazi Germany and return it to its rightful owners.  "The Monuments Men", directed by George Clooney, tells the true story, adapted by Mr. Clooney and Grant Heslov based on Robert Edsel's book.  Regrettably it's a story told poorly, distracted by repetitive, redundant hi-jinks resembling a poorly realized comedy skit.

The comic lines overshadow a serious story that is poorly paced and directed.  A cadre of very good actors -- Cate Blanchett, Hugh Bonneville, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Matt Damon and Mr. Clooney among them -- are used in an odd, disjointed way.  There's little cohesion among the group on a scene-to-scene basis, and the film's proceedings plod on in a very tepid manner. 

The overall atmosphere is plastic, flat and hollow.  There's little connection between the objectives -- why this art is important and the obvious need to return it -- and the characters.  In more ways than one "The Monuments Men" rests on its laurels at the wrong moments, so much so it could be renamed "The Matchstick Men".  It's a shockingly hollow film.  You'd think that Ms. Blanchett and Mr. Clooney had learned from Steven Soderbergh's disappointing "The Good German".

Though "The Monuments Men" is often in discord with its stated purposes there are times where Mr. Clooney forces the thin material he has through the eye of a shaky needle.  He's intent on hamfisting his audience into an important history lesson when he'd have been better off showing them one via a more potent script.  Symbolically, and on cue, the opening sees Mr. Clooney as a professor at a lectern instructing us about the artwork and the strategy to recapture it.  Such scenes are hackneyed, and the stop-start rhythm of "The Monuments Men" puts us at a distance, never involved from the get-go.  The film never recovers. 

My nagging question is, what kind of story did "The Monuments Men" want to tell?  The film is assiduously unsure of itself.  At times it strains to be a "throwaway" love story between characters played by Cate Blanchett and Mr. Damon.  Sometimes it's a war thriller.  At other times it looks like some of the actors are auditioning for a role in "Hogan's Heroes".  Numerous scenes feel tacked on for convenience.  The result is a strange, peculiar brew.  There's a lack of conviction and belief in the execution if not the story. 

The subject matter -- and the men who risked and lost their lives -- deserved a lot better than Mr. Clooney and Mr. Heslov had to offer on the big screen.  Documentaries on the stolen art of the same era "The Monuments Men" charts have been a better way to go.  "The Rape Of Europa" is one such example, a fine film I recommend highly.  The non-fiction realm should have been Mr. Clooney's calling card here.

Also with: Bob Balaban, Alexandre Desplat.

"The Monuments Men" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association Of America for some images of war violence and historical smoking.  In occasional French and German with English subtitles.  The film's running time is one hour and 48 minutes.

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